As if the poor harvest isn’t bad enough, he had to cut his first day short to make repairs, and all he has to show for his two-hour trip are bits and pieces.

Peterson said he doubts anyone will come close to the 20-sack dredging limit set by the Department of Marine Resources.

“Maybe next year will be better, but I don’t see it happening this year,” Peterson said. “It’s just hard. Got to go so far to get the oysters. All the oysters that are right here, the reefs, are all dead.”

These days, there’s no such thing as a full-time oysterman. Most of the time they have to shrimp, and that season is about to end as well.

“We were shrimping up until oyster season,” Peterson said. “Seven more days, going to take all the oyster rig off and put the shrimp nets back on. Start shrimping again.”

At Kimball’s Seafood, the low oyster yield is making a big impact as well.

“The phone has been ringing off the hook, people wanting to know about the Mississippi Sound oysters and, of course, I’ve got to tell them we don’t have any yet,” said owner Darlene Kimball. “I have to tell them there’s not that many boats out.”

For Thanksgiving, the only oysters that Kimball sold were from Louisiana and Texas.

“Years ago, oysters were my main source of income, but now, over the past so many years, we’ve had to resort to other products like fish, shrimp and crab,” Kimball said.

Now, there isn’t much of an oyster season left.

“It’s kind of sad in a way because everything’s just dull down here,” Kimball said. “No excitement, no boats coming in to unload. No 18-wheelers rolling in and out.”

“It’s very depressing,” Peterson said. “We used to get real excited about oyster season.”

Fishermen are allowed to fish until 4 p.m. before having their catch tagged and allowed to sell.